Hungarian langblr

I hope this hasn’t been done yet! Inspired by the Finnish list by @languagesandshootingstars​ and original post here

Don’t let all the different endings worry you, there’s a very simple rule for which one to use!

Today we’ll be talking about the Accusative case in Hungarian. If you’ve studied other languages with cases, then you’ve probably come across the accusative before. In German the cases are marked by the article before the noun, and depending on the gender of the noun, the article can have several different forms. In my opinion, the Hungarian (or even the Finnish way) is a lot easier to remember! Because guess what? It all has to do with vowel harmony! 

Go ahead and read up on Vowel Harmony and Vowel Lengthening so you’ll know which case endings to apply.

Click on the “read more” to read the rest of the post!

Adjectives in Accusative

The majority of cases decline adjectives the same as nouns, however Accusative is a bit different, so we will go over that here.

You can read my previous post on plural adjectives here.

Adjectives Ending in Vowels

Ending in -a / -e

make sure to lengthen the vowel! (a – á / e – é)

add -t

sárga – sárgát (yellow)

csúnya – csúnyát (ugly)

gyenge – gyengét (weak)

szőke – szőkét (blonde)

Ending in all other vowels

add -t

borzasztó – borzasztót (awful)

ehető – ehetőt (edible)

sűrű – sűrűt (dense/thick)

szomorú – szomorút (sad)

régi – régit (old)

kíváncsi – kíváncsit (curious)

Adjectives Ending in Consonants

These take linkings vowels -a (back-vowel words) and -e (front-vowel words), so that:

back-vowel words: -at

front-vowel words: -et

kék – kéket (blue)

értékes – értékeset (valuable)

kész – készet (ready)

alacsony – alacsonyat (low/short)

biztos – biztosat (sure)

Exceptions

These adjectives take -o as a linking vowel

nagy – nagyot (big)

gazdag – gazdagot (rich)

vastag – vastagot (thick/dense)

boldog – boldogot (happy)

vak – vakot (blind)

szabad – szabadot (free)

Adjectives with –atlan / -etlen construction

These adjectives decline as nouns in the Accusative, and as all of these words end in “n”, you simply add -t at the end. No linking vowel needed. (See the Accusative post for the explanation on this)

Szükségtelen – szükségtelent (unnecessary)

Ismeretlen – ismeretlent (unknown)

megváltozhatatlan – megváltozhatatlant (unchangeable)

gondtalan – gondtalant (carefree)

Ethnonyms

def: a name applied to a given ethnic group.

NOTE: in Hungarian, ethnonyms are not capitalized.

Ethnonyms ending in Vowels

These decline as nouns, so they simply take -t at the end. Don’t forget to lengthen the vowels a and e (a – á / e – é)!

Ethnonyms ending in Consonants

These decline as nouns, just like the Accusative case.

NO link vowel after j, l, ly, n, ny, r, s, sz, z, zs (see Accusative post for the explanation on this)

All other ethnonyms ending in consonants: take link vowel -o / -e / -ö for back, front, and rounded front vowels respectively.

horvát – horvátot

finn – finnt

lengyel – lengyelt

Adjectives with a stem change in Accusative

nehéz – nehezet

derék – derekat

kevés – keveset

bátor – bátrat

felébredni – to wake up felkelni – to get up fogat mosni – to brush your teeth megfésülködni – to brush your hair megborotválkozni – to shave felöltözni – to get dressed reggelizni – to have breakfast

elindulni (otthonról) – to get going, to leave (from home) iskolába menni – to go to school dolgozni menni – to go to work (dolgozni = to work) ebédelni – to have lunch könyvtárba menni – to go to the library tanulni - to study felkészülni (egy dolgozatra / a másnapi órákra) – to prepare (for a test / for next day’s classes) megírni a házi feladatot (“házit” for short) / leckét – to do your homework edzésre menni – to go to a sports practice különórára menni – to go to a private class hazamenni – to go home

vacsorázni – to have dinner pihenni – to rest (inter)netezni – to surf the Internet zenét hallgatni – to listen to music barátokkal beszélgetni – to talk to friends filmet nézni – to watch a film zuhanyozni – to take a shower aludni menni – to go to bed

A short sample text about daily routines:

Minden reggel fél 7-kor kelek. Először felöltözöm és megfésülködöm, utána reggelizem. Reggelire mindig kukoricapelyhet eszem. Fél 8-kor elindulok az iskolába. 8-tól 2-ig az iskolában vagyok. Iskola után minden hétfőn fociedzésre megyek, csütörtökönként pedig franciaórára. A franciaóra csak 4-kor kezdődik, ezért előtte el szoktam menni a könyvtárba. Délután először pihenni szoktam egy kicsit, és csak utána tanulni. Este 8-kor szoktunk vacsorázni, azután már inkább csak netezek és a barátaimmal beszélgetek. Este 10-kor általában elmegyek zuhanyozni és aludni, de előtte még fogat mosok.

hó - snow

This is one of those with irregular forms, plural: havak, accusative: havat, etc. (of course we don’t really use the plural since it’s uncountable, it’s probably more common in poetry) havas - snowy havazás - snowfall esik a hó/havazik - it’s snowing

A havas táj nagyon szép volt. - The snowy landscape was beautiful. Havat lapátoltam reggel. - I shoveled snow this morning. Holnapra havazás várható. - It’s expected to snow tomorrow.

hóbagoly - snowy owl hóember - snowman hógolyó - snowball hófehér - snow-white Hófehérke - Snow White hólapát - snow shovel hópehely, hópihe - snowflake hóvihar - snowstorm hóvirág - snowdrop (snow flower)

hó is also an older word for hónap (month)

nem | igen | nemigen

nem [ˈnɛm] 1) no; not 2) sex; gender

igen [ˈiɡen] 1) yes 2) quite; very [e.g.: Igen sok ember volt ma a koncerten. – “Very much”/A lot of people were at the concert today.] [e.g.: Igen meleg volt ma. – It was very hot today.] [e.g.: Igen, meleg volt ma. – Yes, it was hot today.]

Before reading further than here, go check out this post, because grasping the singular possession is important before attempting the plural.

If you have a handle on singular possession, then proceed onward.

The basic endings for the possessive in the plural are the same as for in the singular, but there are a two which are different, and one which is no longer present in the plural.

Back vowels én – -m te – -d maga/ön/ő – -ø mi – -nk ti – -tok maguk/önök/ők – -k

Front vowels én – -m te – -d maga/ön/ő – -ø mi – -nk ti – -tek maguk/önök/ők – -k There will never be a -tök ending because of what happens to the noun stems.

A word on my notation: Some notations show 3rd person singular having -i as its ending and 3rd person plural as having -ik as its ending. I’m choosing to use -ø and -k, respectively, because I’m treating the -i as the alternate plural ending for possessive plural.

The difficulty of the plural possessive comes in what happens to the noun stems before the possessive endings are added, which I will tackle here.

So, the normal plural noun ending is -k, but that is NOT the case when you’re putting possessive in the plural. The ending changes from -k to -i (that -i is the reason why the -tök-ending of the possessive singular is no longer present in the possessive plural). If the word ends in a vowel, then the -i attaches directly to the end of the word, and -a or -e will become -á or -é. Here are a few examples of words being put into this form:

óra – clock/watch – az óráink – our watches nagyapa – grandfather – a nagyapáik – their grandfathers barátnő – girlfriend – a barátnőitek – your girlfriends (inf. pl.)

When you have a word that ends in a consonant, things get a bit more challenging. The possessive plural signifier, -i, cannot be added directly to a consonant, and this is where your knowledge of possessive singular will really come in handy.

The -i of possessive plural is added on to the 3rd person singular possessive ending of the noun. So, if the 3rd person singular possessive ending is -ja, then that -ja will be attached to all forms of the noun before the possessive plural -i + possessive endings.

kalap – hat 3rd person singular form: kalapja

kalapjaim – my hats kalapjaid – your hats (inf. sing.) kalapjai – his/her/your hats kalapjaink – our hats kalapjaitok – your hats (inf. pl.) kalapjaik – their/your hats

Similarly, if the ending in the 3rd person singular is -je, the same rule holds true.

bőrönd – suitcase 3rd person singular form: bőröndje

bőröndjeim – my suitcases bőröndjeid – your suitcases (inf. sing.) bőröndjei – his/her/your suitcases bőröndjeink – our suitcases bőröndjeitek – your suitcases (inf. pl.) bőröndjeik – their/your suitcases

The same rule above holds true for nouns whose 3rd person singular possessive form is either -a or -e. I’ll put up one of those, then we can look at some sentences with these forms. I’ll make a post dedicated to “irregular” forms in the next couple of days, because a post on those could easily get as long or longer than this post itself, since some forms that might seem irregular tend to have their own sets of rules.

kulcs – key 3rd person singular form: kulcsa

kulcsaim – my keys kulcsaid – your keys (inf. sing.) kulcsai – his/her/your keys kulcsaink – our keys kulcsaitok – your keys (inf. pl.) kulcsaik – their/your keys

Sentence time, then we can call it quits on this post.

Szeretem a macskáidat. Ők olyan aranyosak! – I love your cats (inf. sing.). They’re so cute!

Hova sietsz? Megyek a pályaudvarhoz, hogy ott előtte találkozzak a barátjaimmal. – Where are you hurrying to? I’m going toward the train station to meet my friends there in front (of it).

Minden este sétáltatom a kutyáimat. – I walk my dogs every evening.